Replacing third-party material without copying it

Brief A: the opening, Armin Müller-Stahl, archive material (whole block)

English translation for the website (storyboard, 9 Oct 2026). The German file under briefe/ is the document of record; only that one crossed the wall.

Clean-room brief following the six-part prompt. Written by ffp-archive on 8 Oct 2026 from cut V07, version 4 (decades as the time reference on roles and motifs, style names as fixed on 8 Oct). The subject is solely the third-party material of the opening, about two and a half minutes of archive excerpts running under a narration. The interview and our own footage are not part of it and stay as they are. The narration is provisional; part two follows its current version. This brief is the only thing that goes to the generating side.

One, the world

A life in archive material: the roll call of roles of a German character actor who worked in both halves of the divided country and arrived late in the wide world, plus news and magazine pieces that show him as a painter, musician and celebrated old man. The traditions the material comes from: television drama of the post-war decades, East German cinema of the seventies, newsreel of the same period, literary adaptation and costume film of the turn of the millennium, American thriller of the two-thousands, plus culture magazine and television retrospective. Everything is found, third-party footage; none of it was shot for this portrait.

Two, the arc

A face that has shaped many films tells its own story. Trained as a violinist, famous as an actor, for decades also a painter. His youth stands under the sign of flight and a new beginning without a father in the east of the divided country. His objection to the expatriation of a singer-songwriter puts him in the sights of the state; he goes west and, as one of few, can carry on there without a break. Then, without a word of the language, the leap to America, up to a nomination for the most important film prize in the world. Today he lives by the North Sea, after his American house fell victim to a wildfire, and paints every day. Emotionally it begins with curiosity about a familiar face, tips into gravity, confinement and loss, opens out into the large and lands in composure.

Three, mood and visual language

Material that changes its skin with the decades. Black and white as the tone of youth and memory, coarse-grained, soft. The seventies warm, slightly faded, with fog and flat winter light over avenues; plus a room with a guitar. The eighties pale and flat like a television play. The nineties bluish cool, window light. The turn of the millennium rich and dark: candlelight, deep red, chandelier, library, a desk with a lamp. The cinema of the two-thousands hard, clean, saturated yellow-red. Television of today cool and sober, magazine light. In between, still photographs, press pictures, two painted portraits in an expressive stroke, and once a large empty stage in warm working light with a single person standing on it. The camera is mostly foreign and older: static television images, calm film wides, single close-ups with a lot of face, rarely movement. The mood swings between nostalgia and unease, between carnival and state power, and ends in a large, almost solemn stillness.

Four, the people

Armin Müller-Stahl, the main character, may be named and described. He appears here almost only in his roles and in press pictures, as the same man at many ages. The decade stands beside it as the time reference: approximate, as the era of the image and the clothing, not as a film's production year.

• Sixties, black and white: the young man with a cap.
• Seventies: the father with a moustache at the wheel, once with glasses, once without, laughing; the man in a fur hat who drives at night; the guitar player in the room.
• Eighties: the man with glasses in a pale exterior scene, television play. Estimate, same decade: the man in uniform with a cigar, bluish, as in a crime drama.
• Nineties: the smiling man in blue window light. Estimate, same decade: the gentleman in a light suit with a gold tie and a cigar in the dark.
• Turn of the millennium, costume of the first half of the twentieth century: the writer with glasses and a dressing gown at the desk, in the library, on the stairs under the chandelier; the gentleman at carnival with a star hat.
• Two-thousands, costume of the nineteenth century: the gentleman with a cravat in conversation, at a ball, at dinner by candlelight.
• Two-thousands, present day: the church prince in red; the man with a hat whom a boy runs after; the chess player with the boy in the kitchen; the older gentleman in a grey jumper in conversation.
• Twenty-tens to today: the old man on the large empty stage, gaunt, upright, in simple clothes; press pictures, old photographs and painted portraits.

Everyone else only as types: a family in a car, wife and children, laughter; a boy at a chessboard; two girls, one with a violin, in a red dress; a blonde companion; men in red robes; a guard in uniform; a ball party by candlelight; a man in a dark suit as the counterpart.

Four b, the motifs

Across the roles, things recur that can carry a montage of their own, in their own order and length, each with its decade: the cigar, in uniform (eighties, estimate) as in the light suit (nineties, estimate); headwear that makes him a different man each time, peaked cap (sixties, black and white), fur hat (seventies), star hat (turn of the millennium, costume); the glasses, which make him older and sterner (eighties, and at the desk of the turn of the millennium); the car with the family and the foggy avenue (seventies); the guitar in the room (seventies); the desk with lamp and wall of books (turn of the millennium, costume); the red robe (two-thousands); the chessboard with a boy (two-thousands); the large empty stage (twenty-tens); old photographs and painted faces (today). The motifs are the material of the montage, not its sequence.

Five, the rhythm

A short upbeat, a door opens. Then a staccato across decades: short images in dense succession, role upon role, with small breaths when a photograph or a painted face holds. In the middle it becomes broader and warmer, the family, the avenue, the guitar, a calm pulse. Then a push into the large, faster, harder, red and gold. Towards the end a fermata: the person alone on the stage, held long, like a held breath. A quiet close.

Six, the exclusions

Seen and deliberately not described: all film and programme titles, broadcasters and exact production years (decades as an era are allowed and stand in part four); a cinema poster on a bus in front of a famous dome and a street in that city; a procession of red robes in a particular corridor with a guard and a two-person conversation in front of a crucifix, both recognisable compositions of a third-party feature film; the name of the singer-songwriter and of the prize; painted portraits whose models are recognisable; the face of a well-known fellow actor; faces of children and companions; text inserts, logos and station idents; the music; the number, length and order of the shots; the exact location of the house.

Note to the generating side: according to Philipp (8 Oct 2026), Armin Müller-Stahl has given FFP his consent to use his face and his material freely; he may therefore appear recognisably in the 3D style (stylised, not photoreal) as well as photoreal, including in invented role images. What is missing are the rights of the film producers: the scenes have to be new. No synthetic voice. The interview and the portrait's own footage are not part of this brief.

Brief B: one sequence, the church prince (test B)

English translation for the website (storyboard, 9 Oct 2026). The German file under briefe/ is the document of record; only that one crossed the wall.

Clean-room brief following the six-part prompt, for the single sequence. Written by ffp-archive on 8 Oct 2026. The subject is a single passage of the opening: a few seconds from a feature film of the two-thousands in which the main character plays a senior cleric, embedded in a television report from the premiere. The rights to that film lie with third parties; none of it may be rebuilt. The brief therefore does not describe the film scene but a new scene of our own that evokes the same world. With his consent (according to Philipp, 8 Oct 2026) the main character may appear recognisably, in the 3D style (stylised, not photoreal) and photoreal.

One, the world

A Vatican thriller of the two-thousands: the inside of the power of an old church, marble, gold, deep red, corridors with frescoes, guards in historical uniform, the great square and the dome above it. The tradition is that of the American conspiracy and puzzle thriller, shot in European settings, glossy, fast, with reverence for the place and distrust of the people in it. What we take from it is solely the world and the main character's standing in it; the story below is our own.

Two, the arc

A pope has died. The cardinals of the world are gathered in Rome, sealed off from everything, and deliberate. They talk to one another, in small groups, quietly, with looks that say more than words. Outside, the crowd waits. A first ballot fails: black smoke rises from the chimney above the square. The deliberations continue, closer, wearier. Then the old cardinal to whom the office of presiding over the conclave falls stands for a moment alone, apart, in thought. And finally white smoke over Rome, over the dome, over the square. Emotionally: from muted grief and tension through fatigue and doubt to a moment of stillness and an exhalation that is not triumph but relief.

Three, mood and visual language

Inside warm and heavy: candle and lamp light on red and gold, deep shadows, marble, wood, frescoes, light falling in at an angle from high windows. Outside cool daylight over pale stone, a wide square, the sky above the dome, the smoke first black, then white against the blue or against dusk. The camera inside calm, observing, close to faces and hands, with slow moves through corridors; outside large and still, the crowd as a surface, the chimney as a tiny detail in the large. Texture clean and rich as in cinema, without grain. The mood: solemn, muted, lurking; in the middle a breath taken in solitude; at the end, expanse.

Four, the people

Armin Müller-Stahl, named and recognisable, as the old cardinal to whom the conduct of the election falls: very old, gaunt, upright, with a scrutinising look and calm hands, in red with a white collar, a man who keeps his cards hidden and says little. What he wants: for the election to come to an end and the church not to break. Everyone else only as types: cardinals of various ages and origins in red; guards in historical uniform; assistants in black; the crowd on the square, faces turned upward; no second leading figure, no antagonist.

Five, the rhythm

Slow, measured, a pacing. Deliberations as waves: swelling quietly, breaking off, swelling again. The black smoke a short beat, then standstill. The man alone: a long fermata, nothing moves but his gaze. The white smoke releases like an exhalation; the image opens into the expanse above the city and rests there.

Six, the exclusions

Seen and deliberately not described: the title of the film, its source, director, studio and cast; the name of the character; the plot of the film, in particular abduction, conspiracy, threat and any opposing figure; the poster on a bus and the street in front of the dome from the premiere report; the procession of red robes in a particular corridor with a guard and the two-person conversation in front of a crucifix in a red room, both compositions of the film that are not rebuilt; faces of other actors; logos and station idents; music.

Note to the generating side: the conclave with black and white smoke is a real ritual and belongs to no one; the character is an office, not a film character. What is to be avoided are the film's images, not the world. No synthetic voice, no sound, we add that afterwards! No research into fellow cast members. But a conclave is 95% white men and the rest international men, ages as usual.

Brief B, annex: the character sheet

English translation for the website (storyboard, 9 Oct 2026). The German file under briefe/ is the document of record; only that one crossed the wall.

Annex to brief B (conclave). Written by ffp-archive on 8 Oct 2026, after Philipp's decision of the same day. Belongs to brief B and is worked in after reading it. Only a test.

What the character sheet is

One character that stays the same through every image of the test: a man of about 77, a cardinal, with the face of Armin Müller-Stahl. The sheet is built once and then given to every run as the character reference. Everything else about the scene remains invented.

Where the face comes from

From FFP's own material: the interview with Armin Müller-Stahl, Hamburg, June 2026. Three to five frontal stills in calm light are attached as the image reference (folder Figurenblatt_Gesicht_Interview2026, source list Q-002). They show him at 95. The sheet is to show him at about 77: the same features, the same gaze, fewer years. The age is set back in words, not with other images.

Consent: according to Philipp (8 Oct 2026) FFP may use his face and his material freely; the written version is to follow. He may appear recognisably, in both styles.

The character

• Age about 77, upright, calm, slow in movement.
• Cardinal's dress as it has been for decades: scarlet cassock, mozzetta, zucchetto, pectoral cross on its chain. No inventions on the garment, no badges, no lettering.
• Bearing and gaze as in brief B: one who observes, weighs, stays silent before he speaks.
• Three views on the sheet: frontal, half profile, profile. Plus two expressions: composed and in conversation.

What may not go on the sheet

Nothing from films, nothing from television programmes, nothing from third-party archives. No costume details that quote a particular production. No lettering, no logos.

Procedure, after the pattern from Reevaluate (Olympia 2026)

1. Every image input has a row in the source list before the first run, with its provenance type.
2. Thresholds are written before generation, for example: likeness holds across all shots; age reads as 75 to 80; garment without invention; no lettering in the image; he is alone at the end; smoke first black, then white. Every threshold gets an estimate in advance of whether it will hold.
3. A control run without the character sheet, same text: that is how we see what the sheet buys.
4. Failures stay on record, beside the correction.
5. Places only in words. The models know St Peter's Square and the Vatican; interiors are invented, not rebuilt.

How the scene is built, after "The first drum" (Reevaluate, Olympia, unit 1a)

Philipp (8 Oct 2026): the scene of test B is built the way the excavation of 1875 was built on the Olympia page. The five steps, carried over:

1. The evidence. There: the real photograph of 1875/76, public domain, with sources cited as in a paper. Here: the text of brief B as the sole authority for the scene, the 2026 interview as the sole source of the face, the source list as proof. No film images, no broadcast images.
2. The people. There: character sheets from the photograph, types, never portraits. Here: one portrait with consent (the main character) and types for the other cardinals, whose dress is checked against the customary, not invented.
3. The place. There: the empty excavation, matched against a later view. Here: an invented deliberation room and the view over Rome; described only in words, nothing rebuilt.
4. The shots. There: wide, medium, close, framed from the photograph, one action per shot. Here: framed from brief B, one action per shot: the deliberation, the black smoke, him alone, the white smoke over the Vatican.
5. The start frame. There: scale fixed and measured before generation. Here: a start frame with the character in the room, scale and light checked in advance, before a run costs money.

Then the whole scene in one generation: about five shots, twenty seconds, one text. Every version and its measurement stays in the workspace; there the fifth version was the valid one, and here too we reckon with several.